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Systematic Review Meta-Analysis Course - Search Assignment

SRMA Course Assignment Overview

Welcome to the LibGuide for the 340.606 Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis course. This resource will help guide you through the searching assignment for this class.

A good search strategy, customized for the database being searched, is the foundation of a good systematic review. 

Databases must be searched as comprehensively as possible in order to identify all of the documents relevant to your systematic review. The following components used in comprehensive searching will be covered in your assignment:

  • Controlled vocabulary terms (e.g., as found in PubMed's MeSH Database)
  • Keywords (also called natural language terms or text words)
  • Boolean operators (AND, OR) and/or proximity operators
  • Database-specific syntax that allows for the searching of phrases, parts of documents, variants of terms, etc.

You will be developing search strategies for PubMed and Embase for your assigned topic.

The team of Welch Medical Library informationists listed below will be providing assistance with your search strategies. Groups will meet with their assigned informationists during class. Groups are also encouraged to meet with their informationists outside of class prior to submitting their search strategies.

Group Informationist E-mail
1

Stella Seal

sms@jhmi.edu
2

Stella Seal

sms@jhmi.edu
3 Claire Twose ctwose@jhmi.edu
4 Claire Twose ctwose@jhmi.edu
5 Ellie Wecker

ewecker1@jhmi.edu
6

Ellie Wecker

ewecker1@jhmi.edu
7

Lori Rosman

lrosman@jhmi.edu
8 Lori Rosman lrosman@jhmi.edu
9 Rob Wright rwrigh32@jhmi.edu
10 Rob Wright rwrigh32@jhmi.edu

 

Before you start searching, prepare to save your search in a Word document. By saving your search, your strategy will be reproducible for another time and properly documented.

Use these search strategy templates to document your search strategies for PubMed and Embase.

Both your PubMed and Embase searches are due in the CoursePlus dropbox by 12 Noon Wednesday, February 12, 2025.

Informationists will provide feedback and grades for the PubMed and Embase searches. The rubrics for grading both searches are included below.

This searching assignment has been developed to facilitate the timely completion of search strategies for two key databases for the purpose of this class. We DO NOT advocate restricting the number of databases searched or the types of strategies that augment database searching (e.g. handsearching and grey literature searching) during the completion of a "real life" systematic review.

For more about the guidelines for a full systematic review, ask your informationist and/or consult the library's guide called "Systematic Reviews and Other Expert Reviews" (also available from the "More about Systematic Reviews" page of this guide).